Luke's mom and aunt are still grappling with the loss of Luke, questioning law enforcement protocols, and campaigning for new legislation called "Luke's Law."

"I think Luke’s death stirred something in everybody’s heart and soul. We all reacted the same way. We all said, 'This is not happening, this is not right, and this is not acceptable,'" the boy's mom, Titi Hoang Smith of Aptos, told KSBW in a December 2016 interview.

The sheriff said Vigil acted properly and deputies used "everything in our toolbelt" to prevent the situation from escalating. Still, Hart formed a Serious Incident Review Board to determine if the Sheriff's Office could improve its response to critical incidents.

One recommendation was for deputies to be trained that avoiding the loss of life is the primary goal, whenever it is possible, in a crisis situation.

Chief Deputy Craig Wilson said one of Luke's family's biggest concerns was over what happened to the boy after he was shot with an AR15. A K-9 was deployed a second time against him because the knife was still in his hand. When the knife finally left Luke's hand, deputies handcuffed the dying teen before giving emergency medical aid.

A second recommendation from the board was to change the Sheriff's Office policy of always using handcuffs after an officer-involved shooting. Handcuffing a suspect who has just been shot by an officer is a common law enforcement practice.

"We saw this in the (body camera) video, and this is something that is difficult for people to understand when they see it. So we received a lot of comments about that in the course of getting community feedback and feedback from (Luke's) family," Wilson said.

Luke's friends, family, and Aptos High classmates were all shocked by the entire incident, including that Luke could be capable of stabbing someone. He had never shown aggressive behavior in the past, and Savannah Smith said her brother took a "bad batch of LSD."

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Luke Smith’s knife

"This drug brought out some form of evil in him. Luke Smith was, and still is, the funniest, happiest, most loved kid in the county," she wrote on Facebook. "No matter how experienced you are, you cannot control substances; at a certain point, substances control you."

The day after Smith died, deputies raided a Santa Cruz house and arrested four people who they suspect sold the 15-year-old boy LSD. One of the suspected drug dealers, 28-year-old Nathaniel Allen Trecasco, was in a coma when deputies found him, likely from a drug overdose, according to Hart.

INCIDENT TIMELINE (According to the Santa Cruz District Attorney's Office):

Friday, Nov. 18

Sometime between 9:30-11:30 p.m. - Luke and a friend purchased and ingested LSD at a home in the city of Santa Cruz. The two then went to the movies.

Saturday, Nov. 19

Before 2:30 a.m. - Luke returned to a home at the end of Amesti Road in Corralitos that he shared part-time with his father and uncle.

2:45 a.m. - Luke got into a verbal altercation with his father in their home. Gripping a 4-inch pocketknife, he stabbed his uncle and father. Luke then fled the home. Both his father and uncle called 911 from separate lines to report the stabbings.